RE: Preorders

Alright, so I was in gamestop this weekend picking up Deus Ex (much fun, btw for anyone interested) and we were BSing a bit about ToR and its preorders. I had told them I was on the fence about getting a CE because I wasn't sure if I really wanted to pay the money. At that point they told me that it was probably too late to get Early Access and that I may find a lot of places sold out of the CE.

I got home, checked various online retailers and I found that Walmart was still selling the CE and saying that with my purchase I would be physically mailed my code and that I would receive an e-mail informing me when it shipped.

Has anyone else ordered theirs off Walmart's website and received their early access code this way? Or is there a chance that despite what the website says they were, in fact, out of codes and I probably got trolled?

Alright, so I was in gamestop this weekend picking up Deus Ex (much fun, btw for anyone interested) and we were BSing a bit about ToR and its preorders. I had told them I was on the fence about getting a CE because I wasn't sure if I really wanted to pay the money. At that point they told me that it was probably too late to get Early Access and that I may find a lot of places sold out of the CE.

There are quite a few placed that are sold out of the CE, this is not surprising. The people at Gamestop are stupid for telling you that it's to late to get Early Access as it hasn't even started yet. Anyone who pre-orders will get early access, it's on the website for gods sake. Unless they meant to say beta in which case they're still idiots because people at a game shop should know the difference. (Yes i have some animosity towards Gamestop)

Has anyone else ordered theirs off Walmart's website and received their early access code this way? Or is there a chance that despite what the website says they were, in fact, out of codes and I probably got trolled?

One of my (soon to be) guildies ordered off Walmart, he received his pre-order code via snailmail the following week. That's jsut the way that they are doing it. I think you're pretty safe.

There are quite a few placed that are sold out of the CE, this is not surprising. The people at Gamestop are stupid for telling you that it's to late to get Early Access as it hasn't even started yet. Anyone who pre-orders will get early access, it's on the website for gods sake. Unless they meant to say beta in which case they're still idiots because people at a game shop should know the difference. (Yes i have some animosity towards Gamestop)

One of my (soon to be) guildies ordered off Walmart, he received his pre-order code via snailmail the following week. That's jsut the way that they are doing it. I think you're pretty safe.

Awesome, thanks for the reassuring reply man. I'm not gonna give those guys too much guff, they're old friends and they were just trying to give me some warning so that I didn't get my hopes up and then dashed, based on their own experiences. I guess they got shipped X amount of early access codes for their store and blew through them very fast, and from what they could tell weren't going to be receiving another batch. Thanks again though, very much.

Regarding the early access. The Gamestop people might have reffered to the staggerd release date. And the fact that getting early access this late considering when the feature became avalible, might land you in a pickle as to how late you will actually be able to play the game. Considering how many people preordered before you.

Regarding the early access. The Gamestop people might have reffered to the staggerd release date. And the fact that getting early access this late considering when the feature became avalible, might land you in a pickle as to how late you will actually be able to play the game. Considering how many people preordered before you.

That's possible, Here's SR's quote on Early Access, bolded the part concerning this conversation.

"Nothing has actually changed since we announced pre-order access in July.

Everyone who pre-orders Star Wars: The Old Republic and redeems their pre-order code will get Early Game Access. Those who do this will be able to download the game client and play the game ahead of the release date.

While we aren't ready to talk about the exact timing of when Early Game Access starts (that depends on a number of factors including Game Testing and pre-order numbers), we'll announce that before the start date. Our planning accounts for allowing people to download the client before the Early Game Access start date, too.

However, when you actually gain admittance to Early Game Access will be determined in a first-come, first-served manner dependent on when you redeemed your pre-order code.

While we understand all of you want to be in Early Game Access on Day One, part of the point of a head start program like this one is to allow us to gradually ramp up the population of our servers so that on launch day, the general play experience is as pleasant as possible. While we're going to be allowing a lot of people into Early Game Access at regular intervals, we cannot allow everyone who pre-orders in at once. That would defeat the point of a gradual head start.

The next obvious question is "I pre-ordered on Day X, when do I get access?" While we cannot answer that for everyone, I will say (as I did in July) that those who pre-ordered early will be getting Early Game Access, well, earliest. At this point we still have pre-orders available and therefore, anyone who pre-orders will still gain Early Game Access, but as they're redeeming their code later, they'll get Early Game Access later. As I've said before the difference between 'early' and 'later' should be a matter of days, not weeks."

The next obvious question is "I pre-ordered on Day X, when do I get access?" While we cannot answer that for everyone, I will say (as I did in July) that those who pre-ordered early will be getting Early Game Access, well, earliest. At this point we still have pre-orders available and therefore, anyone who pre-orders will still gain Early Game Access, but as they're redeeming their code later, they'll get Early Game Access later. As I've said before the difference between 'early' and 'later' should be a matter of days, not weeks."

I didn't know about this, but I'm glad now that I preordered the day it was available.

Alright, so I was in gamestop this weekend picking up Deus Ex (much fun, btw for anyone interested) and we were BSing a bit about ToR and its preorders. I had told them I was on the fence about getting a CE because I wasn't sure if I really wanted to pay the money. At that point they told me that it was probably too late to get Early Access and that I may find a lot of places sold out of the CE.

I got home, checked various online retailers and I found that Walmart was still selling the CE and saying that with my purchase I would be physically mailed my code and that I would receive an e-mail informing me when it shipped.

Has anyone else ordered theirs off Walmart's website and received their early access code this way? Or is there a chance that despite what the website says they were, in fact, out of codes and I probably got trolled?

The guys at Gamestop are misinformed. What they should have told you is by preordering now, you may not have Early Access the moment it launches. But you will receive Early Access as they continue to allow more and more in. If you played Rift, they are not going to allow what happened in their Early Access to happen, so the only way to combat that is to allow players in on a first come first server basis and not flood the servers uncontrollably.

I imagine Early Access is going to be maybe a week prior so at this point, youd probably get in with in day 2 or 3. Thats just my impression of how things will probably go based on what Bioware has said.

The guys at Gamestop are misinformed. What they should have told you is by preordering now, you may not have Early Access the moment it launches. But you will receive Early Access as they continue to allow more and more in. If you played Rift, they are not going to allow what happened in their Early Access to happen, so the only way to combat that is to allow players in on a first come first server basis and not flood the servers uncontrollably.

I imagine Early Access is going to be maybe a week prior so at this point, youd probably get in with in day 2 or 3. Thats just my impression of how things will probably go based on what Bioware has said.

What they were worried about is retailers being out of early access codes, as they had run out of codes to hand out with their preorders. If you preorder at that store, you do not get a code as they don't have any to give you.

What they were worried about is retailers being out of early access codes, as they had run out of codes to hand out with their preorders. If you preorder at that store, you do not get a code as they don't have any to give you.

Then how are they selling preorders? It sounds to me like they may also be selling copies they are not guaranteed to have shipped to them for launch or they handed out Early Access codes to employees or something shady. Judging by the way Bioware is handling this, it leads me to believe they are not sending out more preorder copies than Early Access codes, so what gives?

This is pretty much the only reason I prefer digital copies anymore. When WoW released, my buddy worked at GameStop and was given a copy of the game because the manager liked him. The guy didnt even know what the game was. Think about how many people preordered and didnt get a copy or how long it took people interested in the game to find one. Shady business....

Gamestop.com's description of the CE edition has no mention of an early access code. I ordered from there originally and then saw in one of the reviews that someone said that you wouldn't get early access. I checked my order status and it said "back-ordered". I then canceled my order.

The Walmart website mentioned the early access code so for the first time I decided to order from Walmart at about 4 PM on 10/11/11. The very next day 10/12/11, Walmart Fedex'd the Early Access code to me and I was able to register it on swtor.com. I couldn't believe how fast they got it to me.

Retailers are given a certain number of codes. So yes, they can run out. Gamestop ran out and stopped giving codes. Best Buy ran out and started handing out codes they handed out already.

Ooooooouch. Handing out codes twice? I bet Bioware had a field day with that one.

@the OP:

To be honest, mate, you may be better off *NOT* pre-ordering. At this point, your Early Game Access may only be a day or two at the most, so you may be better off just getting it Launch Day (or the day after) so you can avoid all the Launch Day madness.

A lot of stores will still list the CE, there's a couple ways places handle it:

1: You preordered the CE at X time which means you are X place in line to get one.
2: You preordered the CE at X time but whoever pays in full gets it first. If you wait till later you might miss out.
3: You preordered the CE at X time but the system randomly sends out boxes, you may or may not get one regardless of how soon.

Some stores simply keep listing an item as available when they haven't been given a particular number on how many of them there will be. Some stores assume a minimal amount, some a large amount before removing the item from their store.

Personally at this point, you've still got a chance depending on how quickly you pay in full and how far in front of the line you are. Otherwise chances are slim to get a CE.

I received my e-mail this morning saying my code should be inbound. I may not end up getting a super early access but at least this will give me a chance to get downloaded, set up, and moving until my CE box can arrive, which according to Wal-Mart should be a few days after Christmas. Here's hoping I get a pleasant surprise.